Erudite, wide-ranging, a work of dazzling scholarship written with extraordinary flair, Civilizations redefines the subject that has fascinated historians from Thucydides to Gibbon to Spengler to Fernand Braudel: the nature of civilization.

To the author, Oxford historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto, a society's relationship to climate, geography, and ecology are paramount in determining its degree of success. ''Unlike previous attempts to write the comparative history of civilizations,'' he writes, ''it is arranged environment by environment, rather than period by period or society by society.'' Thus, for example, tundra civilizations of Ice Age Europe are linked with those of the Inuit of the Pacific Northwest, the Mississippi Mound Builders with the deforesters of eleventh-century Europe.

Civilizations brilliantly connects the world of ecologist, geologist, and geographer with the panorama of cultural history.

Author Bio

Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe : Queen Mary University of London / Oxford University

Felipe Fernández-Armesto is a Professorial Fellow of Queen Mary University of London, and a member of the Modern History Faculty at Oxford University. He is the author of twelve books, including Millennium and Truth: A History.

Preface

Introduction: THE ITCH TO CIVILIZE

Civilizations and Civilization The Civilizing Ingredient The Glutinous Environment The Mask and Apollo: Recent Definitions and Approaches Reaching Between Civilizations -- and Reaching for the Unity of Civilization Process and Progress The Checklist of Civilization Back to Nature: Array by Environment Two Cheers for Civilization

Beyond the Gates of Gog: The Savage North Followers of the Ice The Tamers of Reindeer Companions of the Seal Bladders: Deference to Nature in Arctic America Better Than Civilization: The Inuit in Competition with Europeans

Chapter Two: THE DEATH OF EARTH ADAPTATION AND COUNTERADAPTATION IN DESERTS OF SAND

The North American Southwest -- Northern Peru -- the Sahara -- the Gobi -- the Kalahari

Learning from Hohokam: How to Build Civilization in the Desert The Lakes of Worms: The Limits of Civilization in the Sahara Lands of Unrest: Desert Highways Between Civilizations Spirits of the Slippery Hills: Bushmen and Civilization

PART TWO: LEAVES OF GRASSBarely Cultivable Grasslands

Chapter Three: THE SWEEPINGS OF THE WIND PRAIRIE AND GRASSY SAVANNA

The Great Plains -- the African Savanna -- the Sahel

The Intractable Grasslands The Architects of the Savanna Imperialists of the Sahel Chapter Four: THE HIGHWAY OF CIVILIZATIONS THE EURASIAN STEPPE The Wastes of Gog A Confucian Contemplates the Wild The Making of Mongol Imperialism The Mongol Roads: Causeways of Civilization

PART THREE: UNDER THE RAINCivilization in Tropical Lowlands and Postglacial Forests

Chapter Five: THE WILD WOODS POSTGLACIAL AND TEMPERATE WOODLAND

Cases of Deforestation -- the American Bottom -- North American Temperate Forests -- Europe

The Fear of Trees: Learning to Clear the Forests The Great Wet: Early Civilizations of the North American Woodlands The Longhouse of Elm: Civilization by the Evergreen Frontier Riding the Lumber Raft: Europe After the Forest The Retreat of the Trees: From Forests to Cities in Twelfth-Century Europe

The Habitable Hell: Cultivating the Swamp Amazon Lands: The Challenge of the Rain Forest The Tongue in the Stones: The Lowland Maya The Beloved of the Snake: Khmer Civilization on the Mekong The City of Death: Benin

PART FOUR: THE SHINING FIELDS OF MUDAlluvial Soils in Drying Climates

Chapter Seven: THE LONE AND LEVEL SANDS MISLEADING CASES IN THE NEAR EAST

The Carsamba floodplain -- the Jordan Valley -- Sumer and Egypt

The Yielding Soil: Early Intensifiers of Agriculture The Garden of the Lord: Alluvial Archetypes Back from Diffusion: The Great River Valleys From Sumer to Babylon Out of the Underworld: The "Gift of the Nile"

Chapter Eight: OF SHOES AND RICE TRANSCENDING ENVIRONMENTS OF ORIGIN IN CHINA AND INDIA

The Indus, Yellow, and Yangtze Rivers

Seals in the Sand: Lost Cities of the Indus and the Origins of India Millet and Rice, River and River: The Making of China The Checklist of Shang Civilization The Phoenix of the East: The Survival of China Expansion Without Mutation: The Chinese Grossraum

PART FIVE: THE MIRRORS OF SKYCivilizing Highlands

Chapter Nine: THE GARDENS OF THE CLOUDS THE HIGHLAND CIVILIZATIONS OF THE NEW WORLD

Mesoamerica and the Andes

Altitude and Isolation: Classifying Highland Civilizations Ascent to Tiahuanaco: Predecessors of the Inca Places for the Gods: The Context of the Aztecs Contrasting Worlds: The Aztecs and Inca Juxtaposed The Vengeance of the Tribute-Bearers: Environment and Empire

Chapter Ten: THE CLIMB TO PARADISE THE HIGHLAND CIVILIZATIONS OF THE OLD WORLD

New Guinea -- Zimbabwe -- Ethiopia -- Iran -- Tibet

The Last El Dorado The African Predicament The Mountains of Rasselas: Civilization in Ethiopia High Roads of Civilization: Overlooking Asian Trade Routes Looking Down from Tibet

The Tangle of Isles: Polynesian Navigation Surviving Isolation: Hawaii and Easter Island The Wind's Nest: The Islands of the Aleut Ports of Call: From the Maldives to Malta The Wreck of Paradise: Minoan Crete The Creature of the Lagoon: Venice as a Small-Island Civilization

Chapter Twelve: THE VIEW FROM THE SHORE THE NATURE OF SEABOARD CIVILIZATIONS

The Sea People: Adapting to the Waves The Narrow Shores: Phoenicia and Scandinavia The Atlantic Edge The Frustrations of Rimland: The Early Phase "An Equilibrium of Mud and Water": Coaxing Civilization from the Shoals Beyond the Beach: Identifying Seaboard Civilizations

Riders of the Typhoon: Maritime Japan Caravans of the Monsoon: The Arabs and Their Seas The Ring of the Snake: The Seas of Southeast Asia The Seas of Milk and Butter: Maritime India China's Frontier to the Sea: Fukien

Chapter Fourteen: THE TRADITION OF ULYSSES THE GREEK AND ROMAN SEABOARDS

The Plow and the Prow: A Conversation with Hesiod The Pursuit of Galatea: Greece Takes to the Sea The Claim of Poseidon: Athens and the Sea A Hellenic Cruise: Five Wonders of Antiquity Around the Middle Sea: Ancient Rome as a Seaboard Civilization The Reach of the Classics: The Global Spread of the Greek and Roman Legacies

PART SEVEN: BREAKING THE WAVESThe Domestication of the Oceans

Chapter Fifteen: ALMOST THE LAST ENVIRONMENT THE RISE OF OCEANIC CIVILIZATIONS

From the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic -- from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean

The Muslim Lake The Precocity of the Indian Ocean From the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic: The Shadow of Vasco da Gama The Round Trip of Vasco da Gama

Chapter Sixteen: REFLOATING ATLANTIS THE MAKING OF ATLANTIC CIVILIZATION

Cultural Transmission from Europe to America and Back

The Origins of the European Atlantic The Technological Strand The Power of Culture The Tyranny of the Timing Atlantic Civilization in Black and White: The Imperial Phase The World the Slaves Made

Chapter Seventeen: THE ATLANTIC AND AFTER ATLANTIC SUPREMACY AND THE GLOBAL OUTLOOK

From the Atlantic to the Pacific -- from the Pacific to the World

Crises and Renewals of Atlantic Civilization The Limits and Limitations of Western Civilization Next Stop after the Atlantic The Revenge of Nature The Self-Threatened Menace The Last Ocean Epilogue: In Derek Jarman's Garden Notes

Erudite, wide-ranging, a work of dazzling scholarship written with extraordinary flair, Civilizations redefines the subject that has fascinated historians from Thucydides to Gibbon to Spengler to Fernand Braudel: the nature of civilization.

To the author, Oxford historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto, a society's relationship to climate, geography, and ecology are paramount in determining its degree of success. ''Unlike previous attempts to write the comparative history of civilizations,'' he writes, ''it is arranged environment by environment, rather than period by period or society by society.'' Thus, for example, tundra civilizations of Ice Age Europe are linked with those of the Inuit of the Pacific Northwest, the Mississippi Mound Builders with the deforesters of eleventh-century Europe.

Civilizations brilliantly connects the world of ecologist, geologist, and geographer with the panorama of cultural history.

Author Bio

Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe : Queen Mary University of London / Oxford University

Felipe Fernández-Armesto is a Professorial Fellow of Queen Mary University of London, and a member of the Modern History Faculty at Oxford University. He is the author of twelve books, including Millennium and Truth: A History.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction: THE ITCH TO CIVILIZE

Civilizations and Civilization The Civilizing Ingredient The Glutinous Environment The Mask and Apollo: Recent Definitions and Approaches Reaching Between Civilizations -- and Reaching for the Unity of Civilization Process and Progress The Checklist of Civilization Back to Nature: Array by Environment Two Cheers for Civilization

Beyond the Gates of Gog: The Savage North Followers of the Ice The Tamers of Reindeer Companions of the Seal Bladders: Deference to Nature in Arctic America Better Than Civilization: The Inuit in Competition with Europeans

Chapter Two: THE DEATH OF EARTH ADAPTATION AND COUNTERADAPTATION IN DESERTS OF SAND

The North American Southwest -- Northern Peru -- the Sahara -- the Gobi -- the Kalahari

Learning from Hohokam: How to Build Civilization in the Desert The Lakes of Worms: The Limits of Civilization in the Sahara Lands of Unrest: Desert Highways Between Civilizations Spirits of the Slippery Hills: Bushmen and Civilization

PART TWO: LEAVES OF GRASSBarely Cultivable Grasslands

Chapter Three: THE SWEEPINGS OF THE WIND PRAIRIE AND GRASSY SAVANNA

The Great Plains -- the African Savanna -- the Sahel

The Intractable Grasslands The Architects of the Savanna Imperialists of the Sahel Chapter Four: THE HIGHWAY OF CIVILIZATIONS THE EURASIAN STEPPE The Wastes of Gog A Confucian Contemplates the Wild The Making of Mongol Imperialism The Mongol Roads: Causeways of Civilization

PART THREE: UNDER THE RAINCivilization in Tropical Lowlands and Postglacial Forests

Chapter Five: THE WILD WOODS POSTGLACIAL AND TEMPERATE WOODLAND

Cases of Deforestation -- the American Bottom -- North American Temperate Forests -- Europe

The Fear of Trees: Learning to Clear the Forests The Great Wet: Early Civilizations of the North American Woodlands The Longhouse of Elm: Civilization by the Evergreen Frontier Riding the Lumber Raft: Europe After the Forest The Retreat of the Trees: From Forests to Cities in Twelfth-Century Europe

The Habitable Hell: Cultivating the Swamp Amazon Lands: The Challenge of the Rain Forest The Tongue in the Stones: The Lowland Maya The Beloved of the Snake: Khmer Civilization on the Mekong The City of Death: Benin

PART FOUR: THE SHINING FIELDS OF MUDAlluvial Soils in Drying Climates

Chapter Seven: THE LONE AND LEVEL SANDS MISLEADING CASES IN THE NEAR EAST

The Carsamba floodplain -- the Jordan Valley -- Sumer and Egypt

The Yielding Soil: Early Intensifiers of Agriculture The Garden of the Lord: Alluvial Archetypes Back from Diffusion: The Great River Valleys From Sumer to Babylon Out of the Underworld: The "Gift of the Nile"

Chapter Eight: OF SHOES AND RICE TRANSCENDING ENVIRONMENTS OF ORIGIN IN CHINA AND INDIA

The Indus, Yellow, and Yangtze Rivers

Seals in the Sand: Lost Cities of the Indus and the Origins of India Millet and Rice, River and River: The Making of China The Checklist of Shang Civilization The Phoenix of the East: The Survival of China Expansion Without Mutation: The Chinese Grossraum

PART FIVE: THE MIRRORS OF SKYCivilizing Highlands

Chapter Nine: THE GARDENS OF THE CLOUDS THE HIGHLAND CIVILIZATIONS OF THE NEW WORLD

Mesoamerica and the Andes

Altitude and Isolation: Classifying Highland Civilizations Ascent to Tiahuanaco: Predecessors of the Inca Places for the Gods: The Context of the Aztecs Contrasting Worlds: The Aztecs and Inca Juxtaposed The Vengeance of the Tribute-Bearers: Environment and Empire

Chapter Ten: THE CLIMB TO PARADISE THE HIGHLAND CIVILIZATIONS OF THE OLD WORLD

New Guinea -- Zimbabwe -- Ethiopia -- Iran -- Tibet

The Last El Dorado The African Predicament The Mountains of Rasselas: Civilization in Ethiopia High Roads of Civilization: Overlooking Asian Trade Routes Looking Down from Tibet

The Tangle of Isles: Polynesian Navigation Surviving Isolation: Hawaii and Easter Island The Wind's Nest: The Islands of the Aleut Ports of Call: From the Maldives to Malta The Wreck of Paradise: Minoan Crete The Creature of the Lagoon: Venice as a Small-Island Civilization

Chapter Twelve: THE VIEW FROM THE SHORE THE NATURE OF SEABOARD CIVILIZATIONS

The Sea People: Adapting to the Waves The Narrow Shores: Phoenicia and Scandinavia The Atlantic Edge The Frustrations of Rimland: The Early Phase "An Equilibrium of Mud and Water": Coaxing Civilization from the Shoals Beyond the Beach: Identifying Seaboard Civilizations

Riders of the Typhoon: Maritime Japan Caravans of the Monsoon: The Arabs and Their Seas The Ring of the Snake: The Seas of Southeast Asia The Seas of Milk and Butter: Maritime India China's Frontier to the Sea: Fukien

Chapter Fourteen: THE TRADITION OF ULYSSES THE GREEK AND ROMAN SEABOARDS

The Plow and the Prow: A Conversation with Hesiod The Pursuit of Galatea: Greece Takes to the Sea The Claim of Poseidon: Athens and the Sea A Hellenic Cruise: Five Wonders of Antiquity Around the Middle Sea: Ancient Rome as a Seaboard Civilization The Reach of the Classics: The Global Spread of the Greek and Roman Legacies

PART SEVEN: BREAKING THE WAVESThe Domestication of the Oceans

Chapter Fifteen: ALMOST THE LAST ENVIRONMENT THE RISE OF OCEANIC CIVILIZATIONS

From the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic -- from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean

The Muslim Lake The Precocity of the Indian Ocean From the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic: The Shadow of Vasco da Gama The Round Trip of Vasco da Gama

Chapter Sixteen: REFLOATING ATLANTIS THE MAKING OF ATLANTIC CIVILIZATION

Cultural Transmission from Europe to America and Back

The Origins of the European Atlantic The Technological Strand The Power of Culture The Tyranny of the Timing Atlantic Civilization in Black and White: The Imperial Phase The World the Slaves Made

Chapter Seventeen: THE ATLANTIC AND AFTER ATLANTIC SUPREMACY AND THE GLOBAL OUTLOOK

From the Atlantic to the Pacific -- from the Pacific to the World

Crises and Renewals of Atlantic Civilization The Limits and Limitations of Western Civilization Next Stop after the Atlantic The Revenge of Nature The Self-Threatened Menace The Last Ocean Epilogue: In Derek Jarman's Garden Notes